r feeling towards
Europeans among the inhabitants of the region. At least we were
received at the village in the neighbourhood of which we landed with
extraordinary kindness. The village was situated at the foot of a
rocky ridge, and consisted of a number of houses arranged in a row
along a single street, the fronts of the houses being as usual
occupied as shops, places for selling _saki_, and workshops for home
industry. The only remarkable things besides that the village had to
offer consisted of a Shinto temple surrounded by beautiful trees and
a considerable salt-work, which consisted of extensive, shallow,
well-planned ponds now nearly dry, into which the sea-water is
admitted in order to evaporate, and from which the condensed salt
liquid is afterwards drawn into salt-pans in order that the
evaporation may be completed. It was remarkable to observe that
several crustacea throve exceedingly well in the very strong brine.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO NAGASAKI. ]

On the surrounding hills we saw thickets of the Japanese wax tree,
_Rhus succedaneus_. The wax is pressed out of the berries of this
bush with the help of heat. It is used on a large scale in making
the lights which the natives themselves burn, and is exported
bleached and refined to Europe, where it is sometimes used in the
manufacture of lights. Now, however, these wax lights are
increasingly superseded by American kerosene oil. The price has
fallen so much that the preparation of vegetable wax is now said
scarcely to yield a profit.[384]

We left this place next morning, and on the 21st October the _Vega_
anchored in the harbour of Nagasaki. My principal intention in
visiting this place was to collect fossil plants, which I supposed
would be found at the Takasima coal-mine, or in the neighbourhood of
the coal-field. In order to find out the locality without delay, I
reckoned on the fondness of the Japanese for collecting remarkable
objects of all kinds from the animal, vegetable, and mineral
kingdoms. I therefore hoped to find in some of the shops where old
bronzes, porcelain, weapons, &c., were offered for sale, fossil
plants from the neighbourhood, with the locality given. The first
day, therefore, I ran about to all the dealers in curiosities, but
without success. At last one of the Japanese with whom I conversed
told me that an exhibition of the products of nature and art in the
region was being arranged, and that among the objects exhibited I
mi